Should I Use An HDD or SSD Drive As The "Data Drive" With My Laptop?

Hello.

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe!

I have a subjective (and yet induce elements of fact) question to ask you all.

Introduction: Having a Lenovo T510 legacy laptop that has an upgraded SATA III 500 GB SSD drive (from an older HDD drive) in the main physical drive bay. I also removed the factory optical DVD drive and purchased a drive bay caddy that I plan to place an HDD or SSD inside and use. Right now, my main physical drive bay that has my SATA III 500 GB SSD physical drive contains my Windows 10 Pro 64-bit operating system drive and my hidden Recovery Partition. I plan on storing on the drive bay caddy drive all my data folders (Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Downloads), my Windows desktop files and folders, backup image files from a reputable installed back imaging software, maybe some of my Windows 10 Pro 64-bit temp folders and files (that I clean on a routine basis), my Microsoft Office 2016 OneNote files and other office type files (.doc, .docx, .pdf, etc.), photos and small-sized videos (outside the Windows Pictures and Videos folder) I work on, and other things I am may add I have not considered yet. I may have to setup partition(s) on an HDD or SSD physical drive to accommodate these actions.

Reason: To get off my Windows 10 SATA III 500 GB SSD drive any files or folders that are being rewritten often to lessen the wear placed on my SSD drive currently and use another physical drive (SSD or HDD) with connections (folder and file associations) between the Windows 10 OS system drive on the SSD and the other drive (HDD or SSD) to store the data. [My Comment: Yes, I know SSD drives are more dependable and reliable today than in years past and are more durable; but having frequent reading and writing to another physical drive will naturally lessen to a greater extent any wear on the SSD drive containing my system drive. A little about me that should know -- I perform work on this laptop that places a high demand on a continual basis on reading and (re-)writing files of data (large and small capacities) to physical drives as some of them I have described above. I am considering the physical drive capacity of either another 500 GB or 1 TB too.]

Question: Based on the information I have provided you above, what physical drive type (HDD or SSD) would you recommend IN MY CASE AND WHY FOR MY DRIVE BAY CADDY for my "data files"? [Please reply with facts and opinions.]

Please reply.

Thank you!

dalchina said:

Example: 1Tb SSD vs 1Tb HDD - the HDD is very roughly half price, saving around £50.

If you're talking about long term storage with relatively little use, you might just as well go with a HDD.

The trade-off will vary with the amount of storage you're considering.
Unless you had reason to need very fast access to your data, again, use a HDD.


Want bigger?
4Tb SSD - say £540
4Tb HDD - say £100

- 5x difference.

To consider: which drives will you use as external backups and for disk image files?

You could spend , say, £100 to £200, or up to > £1000 if using all SSDs.

@ dalchina:

Hello!

Thanks for your reply! When you say, "If you're talking about long term storage with relatively little use, you might just as well go with an HDD." Let me say this... ...some data I mentioned in my OP will need very little access to change or re-write on the physical hard drive and other data will have often consistent re-writing on it. That is where I am torn so to speak. I agree HDD is great for long term storage with relatively little use and often "wears" better and is more durable than SSD, but so is SSD if the data is not being re-written so often and faster to access than HDD. For example, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit temp folders and files (that I clean on a routine basis) as I mention require near-constant re-writing and is not a good idea to use an SSD on. Of course, I would see a noticeable slowdown on my PC. Of course, data that I daily use would be better to use an SSD as constant access to a faster drive will give an overall faster experience. Then I realize that if I use another SSD drive for data separate from the current SSD drive my Windows system partition is on, that the degradation of either SSD drive will be significantly slowed when shared between two separate physical hard drives.

Let me add, I installed last month by upgrading to the current 500 GB SSD drive. Using its native utility to check the status of this SSD, I discovered I have 97% life remaining at this point -- in one month! That is a 3% drop per month. Danger levels are around 30% on average before imminent drive failure. I have read or watched that stat some time ago. Maintaining my usual PC habits, in one year I will be at approximately 64% life remaining. Just before two years is up from the time I purchased this new drive, my current SSD will be in line to die. Now, that is not good -- short life! I have owned HDD drives in the past storing much data on the system partition as well as other partitions with consistent re-writes on the HDD, and it lasted me over 6 years before increasingly bad sectors and fixes. Yes, it was MUCH SLOWER experience with HDD! I LOVE SSD's efficiency and speed! I am paranoid about losing my data and OS from a failed physical drive, especially an SSD drive at my current life expectancy rate! So, I am leaning towards HDD with all my constant physical drive re-writes. What is your take? Please reply. Thanks!

Many use laptops as desktop replacements.
At times though you will use the laptop in other home locations and possibly during travel away from home.
Having a SSD drive reduces the risk of damage from bumps, bangs, drops, etc.
It's a small price for this extra cost compared to data loss recovery.
Both types of drives can be regularly monitored with drive testing software.
For the faster boot times too I'd recommend a SSD.

Good day.

Unless you can have both an SSD and a HDD, I would get an SSD for the aforementioned benefits.